Page 4 of Unstoppable You

“Okay,” a voice said, and I sat up, wincing only to meet the eyes of the woman who’d parked her mat in front of me.

She had two-colored hair that was half brown, the other half dyed platinum blonde. It wasn’t a look that many people could pull off, but she made it work. Her face was also decorated with a silver septum piercing. That worked for her too. Something about her made me stare for a second.

She looked…familiar? Yeah, I’d definitely seen her before.

“Delaney?” she asked, and everything fell into place with a snap.

James. James St. Clair. Connor’s sister, who was my age.

My mouth had never just hung open in shock before, but it was happening now.

“What a small world,” she said with a smile, as if she was happy to see me.

After a second, my shock turned to a very familiar emotion: distilled rage.

Moving quicker than I thought was possible after that workout, I stood up and grabbed my stuff, not even bothering to clean off my mat or roll it up.

I had to get out of here. Get away from her. Get away from all the St. Clairs. No good ever came from me talking to a St. Clair. That was true now more than ever.

This month was the absolute worst. Stumbling through the gym, I made it to the locker room to change, got all my stuff together, and bolted, keeping my head down as much as I could.

I managed to make it outside the gym before I heard someone calling my name.

“Hey, Delaney, wait!”

No thank you, I wasn’t going to be doing that. Speeding up, I moved as fast as I could without actually running, my lungs and legs burning.

Cardio. I needed to do more cardio.

No way, fuck that. All I needed to do right now was to get away from James.

Huffing and puffing, I booked it, but it seemed like she kept gaining on me. Okay, I should have done more cardio, but I hadn’t known I would have needed it to escape James St. Clair.

She’d been voted “most likely to be famous” in the yearbook and had given the city the middle finger on her way off to do that.

Guess it hadn’t worked out and now she was back to ruin my life.

Connor hadn’t said a word about her moving back, but we’d never really talked about his sister. Him, because the world revolved around him, and me because I had wanted to forget she existed.

“Delaney, wait.” A hand grabbed my arm and made me stop, but I’d been about to collapse from a stitch in my side anyway. Gasping, I braced my hands on my shaking legs. Never run after Pilates.

“Running away from me? Really?” I turned my head and peered up at her. Of course she wasn’t breathing hard and looked like a fitness model in her matching black bra and legging set. Had she even broken a sweat during class?

“Fuck. You,” I gasped out. Was I ever going to be able to breathe again? Unlikely.

“Deep breaths,” she told me, and I glared at her and gave her my middle finger.

“Are you running away from me because of school or my brother or both?” she asked.

“Fuck off,” I said, finally starting to get my lungs under control. For things that were supposed to keep you alive, they were surprisingly finicky.

Wincing, I stood to my full height, which was only a few inches shorter than James’s. That was more annoying than I could put into words at the moment. She shouldn’t get to be taller than me.

Her septum piercing glinted in the sun as she gazed at me, taking me in.

I didn’t want to be taken in, least of all by her.

“Leave me alone,” I said, and started walking again.

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